It's strange how looks can be so deceiving. Take Lola for instance. I had seen her at the same bus stop for the past year. It became a regular for me to honk my horn and wave as I drove past each morning on my way to work. She would return the wave and smile. Lola was a very beautiful middle age woman who always dressed impeccably. I just knew that she must have been some kind of Executive. She always wore what looked to be a very expensive business suit.
She carried a small briefcase and a little shopping bag. I guessed her age at around 55 but with women you never know. I could always tell if either of us was late by whether or not she was standing there waiting for her bus. I found out that Lola was never late. I had seen her get off another bus to wait for the one that stopped on her corner, so I guessed that she didn't live around that area. I would always smile at this picture of an empowered Black woman that she presented. Little did I know of the dark secret that she harbored behind her facade of a successful Black businesswoman?
I found out, purely by accident, on a rainy day. When I left home it had already started raining. And from the way my wipers were working overtime, it didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon. By the time I reached Lola's corner, it was pouring. I honked my horn and waved the way I always did. Then I saw the car come screeching around the corner. He came so close to the curb that he sent up a wave of water. Lola was in the way and got the brunt of it. She was drenched from head to toe. I pulled my car over to the side and got out. Running back to her, I asked her if she was all right. The driver of the car naturally kept right on going at full speed.
"That lousy fucking jerk! That rotten bastard! Motherfucker! Shit!" The words that spewed from Lola's mouth were anything but ladylike.
"Are you OK? I saw what was about to happened but I couldn't yell to you to jump back in time." Water was dripping off her face and down her raincoat. It had splashed her so badly that her open neck was now a running stream of water dripping down into her ample cleavage. "I can't go to work looking like this. Shit!"
"How about I drive you home so you can change?" She looked at me and I think she saw who I was for the first time. "Hello! Thanks but I don't want to take you out of your way. I live a half hours drive from here." I smiled as the water dripped down my own clothes. "That's Ok! I really didn't feel like working in the rain today anyway. This will give me a reason to take a vacation day and go back home."
I walked her over to the car. When I opened the door, she looked in. "Do you have something that I can sit on? I don't want to mess up these nice seats." I laughed. "If you knew how I looked some days when I get in this car after work, you'd wonder why the seats still look good. My name is Harold by the way." I held out my dripping hand to her. "I'm sorry! Where are my manners? My name is Lola. Hello Harold and thanks."
"Hello to you Lola and think nothing of it. Besides at least now I know your name and you are no longer the mystery lady." We both laughed at that statement. She gave me directions and we spent part of the ride just talking. I stopped at a coffee shop and came back with two big cups of coffee.
As she drank hers Lola laughed. "I hope we don't get caught in traffic, this coffee will run through me like a freight train." She had begun trying to clean up some of the water. Her briefcase had survived but her little shopping bag was a total loss. It had come apart and the contents had spilled all over the place. I gave her a plastic bag and she began stuffing her things into it.
She became so angry she again began to spew out the words of a drunken sailor in a bar. I began to laugh. Neither of us noticed that one of her envelopes had slipped down between the front seats and had lodged under it. As luck would have it we did get caught in a big traffic jam. Some kind of accident had us backed up forever. I noticed that Lola started to fidget in her seat. As we waited, her fidgeting became worse. Finally she couldn't take it any longer.
"Harold you got to pull over. If you don't I'm gonna pee myself. I knew I shouldn't have drunk that coffee." I looked around and there was no place for me to go. There was no shoulder and I was in the center lane of a three-lane highway. Seeing me looking around for a way out, she laughed and said, "I'd hate to have to have your seats cleaned. Please find somewhere". I remembered that I had a small pail in my back seat. I reached behind the seat and handed it to her.
"That's as good as I can make it. I hope you're not too embarrassed?" she looked at me. "You want me to pee in that? Right here! In the car! Right in front of you! But I just met you!" She looked in the back seat. The back seat was full of boxes that I was taking into work. If she did pee in the bucket, she would have to do it right there in the front seat. "There's no room in the back seat for me to go." I shrugged my shoulders. "Lola! You have two choices. You can pee in the bucket or in my seats. I'd rather you use the bucket.
I felt sorry for her a bit. But she really had no choice. It was either pee in the bucket or piss on my seats and on herself. Lola took the bucket from me. "Well I've done a whole lot worse in my day. I guess this won't hurt me. Try not to stare too hard. I don't need you driving into the back of another car while I'm trying to pee." I laughed and told her I'd keep at least one eye on the road. She pushed the front seat back as far as she could. Then kind of squatted in the seat well. She pulled up her wet skirt and I noticed she wore stockings and garter belt.